Natural Intelligence from Saffron Technology

Recently I wrote a response (see here) to a friend CIO at an analytics company's question on... What is transformative in the analytics space? What can work with entrenched platforms and systems while allowing for breakthroughs to occur?

Sounds like a familiar concern if you are a CIO of any company that deals with large amounts of data, hence, CPG, FMCG, airlines, finance, etc. The large investments in Oracle, SAS, SAP, etc. cannot be supplanted, yet they can be complimented.

I am on the Board of Advisor of what I consider the world's first data analytics company that unifies the transformation being desired, i.e. unification of semantics and statistics, in real time. Please see a set of video-logs that shares how Saffron is being used. With a bit of marketing, the examples will highlight the breakthrough.

See details here... enjoy!

Electric Cars - The Reality

From the Wall Street Journal:

"Electric vehicles have been with us for almost 180 years. The first, an electric carriage created by an inventor named Robert Anderson, made its appearance in Scotland in 1832."

"If you are looking for a car that makes good economic sense in these tough times, PEVs simply don't make the grade. Unless crude oil prices rise close to $300 per barrel and battery costs fall by 75%, a PEV is more expensive than a gasoline-powered vehicle."

See complete article here.

China and US Bonds

Via good friend Mr. Tony Tsai, CEO – BHG Retail Innovation Institute and EVP Operations – The BJ Hualian Hypermarket Co.:

"China has reduced holdings of US bonds for three consecutive months; China reduced holdings of US Treasury bonds by $5.4b in January: March 15, according to statistics issued by the US Department of Finance, China reduced holdings of US Treasury bonds by $5.4b in Jan. China has reduced holdings of US bonds for three consecutive months. China is still the largest holder of US bonds. China's holdings of US bonds were reduced to $891.6b by Dec. 2010."

US Patent Changes!

Having written about patents in general, see here, here and here, the new changes USPO are creating excitement!

From Yahoo News, details here:

"The most substantial change brought about by the bill would be to switch the United States to a "first-inventor-to-file" system for patent applications used by all other industrialized countries rather than the current "first-to-invent" system. Supporters say the first-to-file system would put American innovators on the same page as their overseas competitors, making the process simpler, more certain and less expensive."

From The Hill, details here, the reader comments are enjoyable.

From The Wall Street Journal, details here:

"The Patent Office would also gain power to set its own funding, a move that is likely to mean higher application fees but also greater resources to process an application backlog that exceeds 700,000."

From The New York Time, details here:

"... the House is unlikely to take up a patent bill anytime soon, and people with an interest in the patent system say they expect its bill to be significantly different."

"Many smaller companies and inventors opposed the change, however, arguing that it favored companies that could hire legions of lawyers to quickly file applications for new permutations in manufacturing or product design."

"A consortium of technology and computer companies are already lobbying House members to resist addressing procedures to re-examine patents in their bill. The Information Technology Industry Council, whose members include Dell, Google, I.B.M. and Microsoft, said in a letter to Mr. Leahy earlier this month that it opposed the bill’s provisions to alter how patents could be re-examined, asserting that this would increase litigation rather than reduce it."

US's competitive edge being lost

Paul Otellini, Intel CEO: "You see us investing in good times and in bad times when other people don't." Otellini, added NBC, "fears the country is losing its competitive edge to Asia. He blames high corporate taxes and an education system that's falling behind the rest of the world in math and science."